Various Artists - Music for Montserrat, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 9-15-1997

Here's a really interesting benefit concert from 1997. Just look at the list of big stars involved: Carl Perkins, Midge Ure, Phil Collins, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Sting, Elton John, and Paul McCartney. Most of them performed two or three songs together, and all the big names got together with McCartney to sing some of his songs for the finale. All that, and the sound quality is excellent.

Montserrat is a small island in the Caribbean Sea, and it's still a colony of Britain. In 1979, George Martin, best known as the producer for nearly all the Beatles records, financed the building of a recording studio there. From 1979 to 1989, about 70 albums were recorded there, because musicians enjoyed recording in a beautiful, exotic locale. Many of them were by very big stars, such as "Synchronicity" by the Police and "Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits.   

Unfortunately, in 1989, the Category Four hurricane Hugo hit Montserrat. It destroyed 90 percent of all buildings on the island, including Martin's recording studio. The studio wasn't rebuilt. Then, in 1995, the main volcano on the island, Soufriere Hills volcano, erupted. The island was basically completely devastated again. Martin then led the effort to stage this benefit concert. All the musicians involved recorded albums on Montserrat. Ultimately, about a million and half British pounds were raised. Later, limited edition lithographs signed by McCartney and Martin raised another million and a half pounds. This money went to help people reconstruct their homes, as well as the building of a new cultural center for the island. 

Here's the Wikipedia entry about this concert, if you want to know more: 

Music for Montserrat - Wikipedia  

For this concert, Martin decided that less was more. He even mentioned in his banter during the concert that he turned down many musical acts who wanted to take part. The focus was just on the biggest stars. One exception was Arrow. He only had one minor hit in 1982, in Britain, "Hot Hot Hot." But he is Montserratian, so it made sense he would be involved. Also, "Hot Hot Hot" went on to be a bigger hit by Buster Poindexter in 1987. 

This concert has been released on DVD, but not in any audio format. So I started with the DVD, converting it to audio format then breaking it into mp3s. "Hot Hot Hot," plus "Volcano" by Jimmy Buffett and "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" by Midge Ure, were not on the DVD. But luckily I found out they were performed by reading the Wikipedia entry about the concert. Then I found YouTube videos of them. Those had very good sound quality, because they were broadcast on TV. 

In addition to adding some missing songs, I cut some things. Mostly, I cut some interviews that were interspersed between the songs in the DVD. Martin plus some of the big stars like McCartney and Sting were interviewed. It's interesting stuff, but it wasn't part of the concert, so it got the axe. If you want to see that, check out the DVD.

Probably the highlight of the concert was McCartney's set at the end. As he said in the interview which I cut out, he had met the other stars in this concert many times over the years. However, he rarely actually played music with any of them. For instance, he said the last time he played with Clapton was when Clapton guested on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the White Album by the Beatles in 1968. But McCartney practiced with Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Elton John, and really collaborated with tracks 42 to 46 at the end here.

One final note. This was the last major public appearance for Carl Perkins. He was in fine health at the time of this concert. But he died after a series of strokes in January 1998, at the age of 65. 

This album is two hours and 15 minutes long.

01 talk (George Martin)
02 talk (Carl Perkins)
03 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Midge Ure)
06 Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (Midge Ure)
07 Vienna (Midge Ure)
08 talk (George Martin)
09 talk (Phil Collins)
10 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
11 Take Me Home (Phil Collins with Ray Cooper)
12 talk (Arrow)
13 Hot Hot Hot (Arrow)
14 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
15 Volcano (Jimmy Buffett)
16 talk (Phil Collins)
17 talk (Mark Knopfler)
18 Going Home [Theme from Local Hero] [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)
19 talk (Mark Knopfler)
20 Brothers in Arms (Mark Knopfler with Guy Fletcher)
21 talk (Mark Knopfler)
22 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler with Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton & Ray Cooper)
23 talk (Phil Collins)
24 Message in a Bottle (Sting)
25 Fields of Gold (Sting)
26 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Sting)
27 talk (George Martin)
28 talk (Elton John)
29 Your Song (Elton John)
30 talk (Elton John)
31 Live like Horses (Elton John)
32 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Elton John)
33 talk (Carl Perkins)
34 Broken Hearted (Eric Clapton)
35 Layla (Eric Clapton with Mark Knopfler)
36 talk (Eric Clapton)
37 Same Old Blues (Eric Clapton with Mark Knopfler & Phil Collins)
38 talk (George Martin)
39 talk (Paul McCartney)
40 Yesterday (Paul McCartney)
41 talk (Paul McCartney)
42 Golden Slumbers (Paul McCartney with Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler & Eric Clapton)
43 Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney with Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler & Eric Clapton)
44 talk (George Martin)
45 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney, Elton John & Everybody)
46 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Paul McCartney & Everybody)
47 talk (Paul McCartney & George Martin) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WN5He6az 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/rtae3vnAgivMIJf/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: Carl Perkins, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney. Sting is right behind Perkins, but all you can really see of him is his hand on the neck of a bass guitar. In the original photo, the neck of Sting's bass guitar went right over Knopfler's face. In my opinion, it kind of ruined the photo. But there were several photos no doubt taken minutes apart from each other from the same spot. I found one where Knopfler's face was fully visible and the bass guitar neck was lower, and I patched in just that part of the image, using Photoshop. I also used the Krea AI program to flesh out some of the detail.

Various Artists - Elvis: The Tribute, Pyramid Arena, Memphis, TN, 10-8-1994

Here's another interesting tribute concert, with loads of big stars. All of the songs performed were made famous by Elvis Presley. 

This concert seems to have mostly disappeared down the memory hole. An album of highlights from the concert was released, called "It's Now Or Never: The Tribute To Elvis." However, it's only 45 minutes long, containing just 15 songs. But the full two plus hour long concert was broadcast on TV at the time, so excellent sounding video footage of it exists.

This concert took place in 1994 despite the lack of any big anniversary or other important timely reason for it. Instead, the Elvis Presley estate decided that Presley's music was being forgotten by younger generations, so the concert was meant to help bring his music back into the spotlight.

As you can see from the album cover or the song list, a great many music stars performed in this concert. A few more - Jon Bon Jovi, Jeff Beck, and Cher, at least - backed out at the last minute. I found that mentioned in a newspaper article, though it didn't give a reason why. 

I used two versions of the video files of this concert, converted them to audio format, and broke them into mp3s. During that process, I cut out some material. There were several sections of a few minutes each that consisted of short films highlight different aspects of Presley's life. I removed all of those, plus their intros, since they were meant mainly to be seen, not heard. I also edited out some more talk by the announcers. However, I kept all the intros relevant to the songs. Plus, of course, I kept all the music.

The concert was mostly hosted by Karen Duffy, an MTV DJ, and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. But actor John Stamos introduced a few acts, and TV host Phil Donohue introduced one, and sometimes one act introduced the next one.

Occasionally, I had a little trouble with the edits at the starts and ends of songs. For instance, there were quick cuts to or away from TV commercials, as well as the short films I mentioned above. I tried my best to smooth things out, but occasionally the transitions between tracks is abrupt.

Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, James Burton, and the Jordanaires didn't have any performances on their own. However, all of them were key backing musicians or singers for Presley. From time to time, they backed up some of the other music acts. 

All of the performances were live from the concert, with two exceptions. I think "Too Much" by NRBQ actually took place before the TV broadcast began. But I slotted it into a logical spot in the concert. And U2 didn't show up for the concert, but sent video footage of their performance to be broadcast instead.

By the way, if you want to know more about the concert, I found a New York Times article of it from the time. Here's the link (I think you have to click on Option 2 to see it):

RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover 

This album is two hours and three minutes long.

01 talk (Karen Duffy)
02 Good Rockin' Tonight (Sammy Hagar)
03 Too Much (NRBQ)
04 Baby, Let's Play House (Michael Hutchence & NRBQ)
05 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
06 talk (Chet Atkins)
07 How's the World Treating You (Chet Atkins)
08 talk (Karen Duffy)
09 Mystery Train (Dwight Yoakam)
10 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
11 Don't Be Cruel (Marty Stuart with the Jordanaires)
12 talk (Marty Stuart)
13 All Shook Up (Cheap Trick)
14 talk (John Stamos)
15 That's Alright Mama (Kris Kristofferson)
16 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
17 One Night (Billy Ray Cyrus with the Jordanaires)
18 talk (Karen Duffy)
19 Lawdy Miss Claudy (Travis Tritt)
20 talk (Karen Duffy)
21 Blue Moon [Edit] (Chris Isaak with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
22 Love Me (Mavericks)
23 talk (John Stamos)
24 talk (Carl Perkins)
25 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
26 talk (Carl Perkins)
27 Rip It Up (Iggy Pop)
28 Memories (Mac Davis)
29 talk (Mac Davis)
30 talk (Bryan Adams)
31 Hound Dog (Bryan Adams with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
32 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
33 Always on My Mind (Sam Moore)
34 talk (Karen Duffy)
35 Heartbreak Hotel (John Cale)
36 talk (Karen Duffy)
37 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Ann Wilson)
38 talk (Karen Duffy)
39 Teddy Bear (Tanya Tucker)
40 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
41 Trouble (Paul Rodgers)
42 talk (Phil Donahue)
43 [Marie's the Name] His Latest Flame (Scorpions)
44 Can't Help Falling in Love (U2)
45 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
46 It's Now or Never (Wet Wet Wet)
47 talk (Mac Davis)
48 Love Me Tender (Tony Bennett)
49 talk (Mac Davis)
50 Young and Beautiful (Aaron Neville)
51 talk (Mac Davis)
52 Jailhouse Rock (Michael Bolton with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana & Carl Perkins)
53 talk (Karen Duffy)
54 Tryin' to Get to You (Faith Hill)
55 talk (John Stamos)
56 See See Rider (Jerry Lee Lewis with James Burton & NRBQ)
57 Kentucky Rain - Suspicious Minds (Eddie Rabbitt & Mavis Staples)
58 talk (Karen Duffy)
59 Burning Love (Melissa Etheridge)
60 talk (John Stamos)
61 Amazing Grace (Billy Ray Cyrus & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GWnJSkKo

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/cqa2ziePj3VTmo8/file 

The cover image is a pretty weird one for this concert, but bear with me for the explanation. It depicts Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley (the daughter of Elvis Presley). They had recently gotten married at the time of this concert. (Their marriage only lasted from 1994 to 1996). The weird thing is that neither of them performed at this concert. However, they did attend it. At one point near the end, you can hear the announcer mention their names, along with those of Janet Jackson (Michael Jackson's sister) and Priscilla Presley (Lisa Marie Presley's mother). All four of them briefly stood up and waved to the crowd. 

The main reason I chose them for the cover is because this was the only decent photo from the concert that I could find. The mere fact they were at the concert made news, especially due to the fact that they had just been recently married. I think the image shows the two of them backstage before or after the concert. Even this picture was rather low-res and rough, but I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. 

Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton - The Bottom Line, New York City, 5-9-1989

We're very lucky to have this recording. In 1989, Eric Clapton joined Carl Perkins for a bunch of songs in concert. I looked it up at a comprehensive Clapton fan site, and believe that's the only time that happened. Yet somehow a soundboard recording leaked to the public.

The first half or so of this is just Perkins and his usual band. That's quite nice all by itself, with this sound quality. But track 11 introduces Clapton, and he stayed on stage for the rest of the concert. It seems like they planned this in advance and may even have practiced some, because Clapton was quite involved and seemed to know what he was doing, including joining in on backing vocals a lot. He even sang lead for part of the song "Matchbox."

If anyone know more about this concert, and how it came to be professionally taped but then not officially released, please let me know.

This album is 50 minutes long. The portion with Clapton is the last 30 minutes.

01 The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise (Carl Perkins)
02 talk (Carl Perkins)
03 Dixie Fried (Carl Perkins)
04 talk (Carl Perkins)
05 Born to Rock (Carl Perkins)
06 talk (Carl Perkins)
07 The Birth of Rock and Roll (Carl Perkins)
08 Your True Love (Carl Perkins)
09 talk (Carl Perkins)
10 Put Your Cat Clothes On (Carl Perkins)
11 talk (Carl Perkins)
12 Mean Woman Blues (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
13 talk (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
14 Matchbox (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
15 talk (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
16 Roll Over Beethoven-Maybellene-Slippin' and Slidin'-I'm Walkin'-Whole Lotta Shakin'-Hound Dog (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
17 talk (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
18 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
19 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16039160/CarlPerk_1989_TheBottmLneNwYrkC__5-9-1989_atse.zip.html

We're very lucky that I managed to find one photo from this exact concert, showing Perkins and Clapton together. Unfortunately, it was only in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Palette program.

Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins - Old Friends from Montserrat (1993-1997)

Paul McCartney and the other Beatles were heavily influenced by Carl Perkins, best known for his 1956 hit "Blue Suede Shoes." In 1993, while McCartney was passing through Nashville, Tennessee, while on tour, he visited Perkins. They talked and played some songs on acoustic guitar. The encounter was filmed and parts of it were later shown on video. If you're a fan of McCartney, Perkins, or both, this album sourced from that video is a real treat.

There has been a bootleg floating around for many years called "Old Friends from Montserrat." I've used that title, though I've made some minor changes here and there in the content. (The video added in some songs that were just McCartney playing, whereas I've boiled it down to just the McCartney-Perkins collaborations.)

The bulk of this album, the part with McCartney and Perkins talking and playing guitars in 1993, is rather short, at only 21 minutes. But it's a case of quality over quantity. This type of interaction between McCartney and one of his musical heroes is priceless, in my opinion. As the original bootleg does, I've added a few more related items at the end. There are two songs taken from a 1997 concert in London that benefitted the victims of a hurricane that hit the island on Montserrat. That was the last significant concert involving Perkins, who died in early 1998. One song mainly features Perkins singing and the other mainly features McCartney singing, but they were on stage together.

I end the album with "My Old Friend," a song Perkins wrote and performed with McCartney on Perkins' 1996 album "Go Cat Go." The two of them also played it together earlier in the album, during their 1993 acoustic sessions.

With the extra songs, the album totals 32 minutes. That's still short, but like I said, it's quality over quantity.

01 Your True Love (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
02 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
03 Get It (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
04 My Old Friend (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
05 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
06 Maybellene (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
07 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
08 Lend Me Your Comb (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
09 Wake Up Little Susie (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
10 Matchbox (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
11 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
12 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
13 Les Paul Guitar Picking Thing [Instrumental] (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
14 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
15 Blue Suede Shoes (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
16 talk (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)
17 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Paul McCartney with Carl Perkins)
18 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Paul McCartney)
19 My Old Friend (Paul McCartney & Carl Perkins)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16696786/PALMCCRTNYCRLPRKNS1993_OldFrindsfrmMntserrt_atse.zip.html

The original bootleg has a cover art photo that only features McCartney. I found that inappropriate. Instead, I took a screenshot from the 1993 video of McCartney and Perkins together. Then I added my own text to that.

Tom P*tty & the Heartbreakers with Carl Perkins - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, 1-26-1997

I was in the mood for some good ol' Tom P. and the Heartbreakers rock and roll today, so I listened to one of my favorite bootleg concert recordings by him and prepared it to be posted here.

(Note that I'm not using the full name of this artist due to concerns about copyright issues.)  

This concert is from a legendary run of over 20 shows in a row P. played at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Instead of playing the usual set list consisting mostly of hits, P. and his band used the Fillmore run to stretch out and play lots of covers as well as deep cuts from their own catalog. Two of the shows were professionally recorded and broadcast on the radio at the time. This is the first one, but I'll post the other one eventually as well.

If you've been following this blog a while, you may know that I've posted a long series of albums of P.'s live cover versions. Since a lot of covers were played at the Fillmore shows, and this is one of the very best of those shows in terms of sound quality, I've used seven of these exact performances in that series. But still, it's worth hearing the entire concert. In addition to those seven covers, they played five more, plus lots of rare originals. For instance, they did "On the Street," a song done by Mudcrutch, P.'s band before the Heartbreakers. But also, it was a long show (two hours and twenty minutes), so they still had time for lots of the big hits that everyone knows and loves.

On top of all that, rockabilly legend Carl Perkins was the opening act, and he came out during P.'s show and essentially took over for about 20 minutes, singing lead while P. and the Heartbreakers backed him up. So that's another four covers, if you want to count them that way.

Because this recording was already is very good shape, I didn't have to do much tinkering. But I did do some. Mostly, I adjusted the volume of the audience cheering (often too loud) and the comments between songs (often too quiet). I also fixed a few dropouts that only happened in one channel, so I was able to duplicate the music from the other channel.

In 2022, a box set called "Live at the Fillmore" was released, consisting of highlights from this Fillmore run. But none of the songs in it come from this particular concert, so everything here is still unreleased.

I'm not including the track list due to copyright issues. But you can find it in the mp3 download file.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cepZCwr2

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QJGIudAnKE0syXg/file

The cover art photo is from this exact concert. That's Carl Perkins dressed in black and playing a guitar solo while Tom P. watches. The very red lighting (which I think looks pretty cool) was like that in the original.